Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Yesterday Mary had to take her kids to an early dentist appointment, and wasn't able to get here until 10:00. Annie was stuck in traffic, so I took over the front desk since the first patient, a new one, was scheduled for 9:00.

The patient showed up at 9:30, WAY too late (in my opinion) to try and see a new patient. So I told her she'd have to reschedule. She wasn't happy about it, and asked to see a different doctor, or a PA or NP. I told her we don't have anyone else, and so she finally rescheduled to next Tuesday.

Later in the afternoon:

Mary: "Dr. Grumpy's office, this is Mary."

Mrs. 9:30: "Yeah, I had an appointment this morning, and had to reschedule it to next week."

Mary: "Yes?"

Mrs. 9:30: "I just want to complain. The male receptionist who was working this morning wouldn't let me see the doctor. I didn't like that at all."

Mary: "Male receptionist... Oh, that was..."

Mrs. 9:30: "I don't care what his name was. The doctor needs to know his staff is turning patients away. Even if they show up late, it's still inappropriate. My time is valuable."

(long pause)

Mary: "The doctor is aware of what happened."

Mrs. 9:30: "Good. Because I want to be sure to tell him about that guy at my appointment."

I bet she won't remember by next Tuesday what the receptionist looked like--and might not even remember to complain. But if she does suspect it was you, Grumpy, tell her it was your twin brother, to whom you throw occasional work in order to keep him out of jail.

as a kindness, Mary could make statement when she checks in (IF timely on the next visit) that Dr G was filling in at the desk, so to save her face. patients, even dissatisfied, do not sue when information/honesty is the policy

no matter how tempting, otherwise.

on the other hand, if she shows up late again, all bets are off, and explain the charge fee structure for second late visit and never again for the third....

I have never understood people who are always late for their appointments and then get indignant over the consequences. Man...I'd love to see the look on her face when she finally confronts her offender for the 2nd time! heh heh heh....

Maybe this is the time to drag out that shiny lab jacket, restyle the mop, and wear Marie's tie that she gave you for Father's Day? You could also wear shades and a gold ring on your pinkie finger, something shiny? I've noticed a considerable difference in facial recognition when I wear a lab jacket. I was just walking through the ER filling the automated dispensing machine and the patient on the gurney saw me and started groaning and moaning. She had been chatting on her cell phone animatedly up to the point where she saw me. (RPh)

Reminds me of when I was working as a pharmacist in a big-box store pharmacy and my district manager decided to stop in to chat. He decided in his infinite wisdom he was going to "help out" because we were running due to a tech being out. He had never worked in pharmacy before getting the DM job and was nearly clueless. The techs on duty had to bit their tongues to not laught at him or scream at him for the constant errors and mistakes. I got pulled over by one customer who told me I needed to fire the male "tech" because he as useless. She also had a number of things to say about his customer service and other things. I tried not to laugh because he would always chew us out whenever some one called and complained that we didn't get their scripts out fast enough regardless that they think we could do 6 scripts with them not having an insurance card but telling us to "look it up" and get it done in 10 minutes, but they're back at 5 minutes demanding their filled scripts. The customer didn't seem to believe that the "idiot" working was my boss. I guess when she called to complain about the "tech" she was going to get an interesting surprise.

Welcome to my whining!

This blog is entirely for entertainment purposes. All posts about patients may be fictional, or be my experience, or were submitted by a reader, or any combination of the above. Factual statements may or may not be accurate.

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